The Unbearable Weightlessness of Being

They hate me up here…I know that. She’s the only woman on board and I’m fucking her. Of course, they hate me. They pretend it’s because of our lack of professionalism, but I know it’s jealousy. We tried to be discreet at first, but you try keeping secrets from three other people in a floating tin can.

It’s completely against the rules, and I’m sure Houston knows by now. But what are they going to do–send another Space Shuttle to bring us back? We’ll be dealt with when we get home and we’ll take our licks. It will have been worth it. It’s only been a week and it’s already been worth every minute.

All the times I trained in weightlessness, I never once thought about sex. She’s the one who initiated it. She said she’d tried it out in the anti-gravity chamber back in Moscow. She couldn’t wait for her first mission to try it out for real. I guess I’m lucky she chose me.

I’ve been wondering: are we the first ones to ever do this? There have only been a few other women up here. So, unless all those guys in the Apollo rockets were getting funky with each other…

Last night, hanging upside-down in zero gravity, I whispered into her ear, “Do you realise we could be only two people in history who have ever done this?” She didn’t answer, just let out a dirty, Russian laugh and shoved my head back between her weightless breasts.

Derek Flynn is an Irish writer and musician with a Masters in Creative Writing from Trinity College, Dublin. Derek’s short story “The Healer” was recently featured in Surge, an anthology of the best new Irish writing published by O’ Brien Press. He is also a regular contributor to http://www.writing.ie where he writes his “Songbook” column. And because he obviously has a lot of time on his hands, he is currently working on his latest solo album.